Young Mets Pitchers Considered Equally Confident, but They’re Not Two of a Kind

Twenty-three-year-old Matt Harvey, left, and 22-year-old Zack Wheeler working out in Florida.Credit
Photographs by John Ricksen for The New York Times

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — In many ways, they have seemed inextricably tied, Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler, two right-handers expected to be at the forefront of the Mets’ renaissance, if one ever occurs. Together their names rest on the tips of fans’ tongues, quickly spoken when talk turns to a happier future for the club. At the team’s spring training complex, they dress at adjacent lockers, in whispering distance of Johan Santana’s.

Yet as often as they are paired in people’s minds, they are sharing a clubhouse for the first time, and they are just now getting to know each other. What is becoming clear is that despite how similarly fruitful the Mets hope Harvey’s and Wheeler’s careers will be, their personalities could not be more different.

“They are equally confident, but otherwise, they are on total opposite ends of the spectrum,” said Dan Warthen, the Mets’ pitching coach. “Wheeler has this quiet confidence, but he doesn’t go out of his way to be loud or make friends or do anything like that. Harvey wants to be in the middle of everybody’s conversation, wants to impose his opinion on everything.”

Simply put, Warthen said, “one is introverted; one is extroverted.”

Some of this has to do with the stratified atmosphere inside clubhouses. Harvey, 23, drafted by the Mets in 2010 out of North Carolina, participated in big-league camp last February and was called up to the majors over the summer. He has earned his right to fist-bump and shoulder-smack his way around the room.

Wheeler, 22, was picked sixth over all in 2009 by the San Francisco Giants and came to the Mets via trade in 2011. He finished last year at Class AAA and is expected to begin this season at that level. This is his first major league camp, and he has acted like it, going about his business quietly, speaking when spoken to.

But as those around them have noticed, their differences go beyond clubhouse hierarchy.

“I’m a nice, chill, relaxed guy,” Wheeler said. “Nothing really bothers me. I just go with the flow, really, man. Stuff’s going to happen, and you can only roll with it, good or bad.”

Wheeler’s favorite activities center on a couch inside the house he shares with an older brother in Dallas, Ga., where he went to high school. He said he spent his off-season playing the video game Call of Duty and listening to Frank Sinatra.

Through his entertaining Twitter account, he has professed a love for the Chipotle Mexican Grill burrito chain, and he recites lyrics from rappers like Drake and Trinidad James. He enjoys fishing on a lake near his house and bought a rifle recently with plans to start hunting deer and birds next winter. His easy drawl contrasts with Harvey’s squared-up speaking manner.

“I’m a pretty serious guy,” Harvey said. “I pick my times to have fun, but I take things — life, my diet, my workouts — pretty seriously. This is a job, and I want to make sure I can do it for a long time.”

Harvey said last week that he had been trying to cut out unnecessary carbohydrates and fats from his meals and introduce more fruits and vegetables. He likes fishing, too, but in the ocean near Cape Cod, where he spent his summers growing up. This winter, Harvey moved into an apartment in Manhattan’s East Village that he has left in the hands of an interior decorator. He laughed telling how a Hollywood actor had converted the adjacent unit into a gym for his family.

One of the highlights of Harvey’s off-season was befriending several Rangers, including the star goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, who took him to dinner at Willow Road, a new restaurant in the meatpacking district. Harvey joked that he was trying to get fashion tips from Lundqvist, who is known for his sleek suits.

Wheeler’s culinary highlights came at his parents’ house down the road. Five minutes before dinner, his mother would call him over for meatloaf, mashed potatoes and sweet tea.

But after spending their off-seasons elsewhere, Wheeler and Harvey have arrived in Florida to continue their careers on the mound. There, they differ in many ways, too, despite the fact they both throw into the high 90s.

Warthen said Harvey, who will begin the year in the rotation, was a “bulldog, aggressive, real go-get-’em.” Harvey said he grew up admiring the field presence of Roger Clemens.

Wheeler has a power fastball, too, but it explodes from a smooth, graceful delivery. “It is the easiest 98 I’ve ever seen,” said Warthen, who added that Wheeler’s stuff was as good as that of accomplished pitchers he has worked with like Randy Johnson and Trevor Hoffman.

Harvey said he hoped to get to know Wheeler over the coming weeks. Wheeler’s general quietness was natural, Harvey said, but it might not last for long.

“There’s going to be a time, hopefully if it all works out, that he and I can anchor the staff,” Harvey said. “Then we can be a little louder.”

Correction: February 18, 2013

An earlier version of the credit in the picture caption with this article misidentified the photographer as Marc Serota.

A version of this article appears in print on February 18, 2013, on page D4 of the New York edition with the headline: Young Mets Pitchers Considered Equally Confident, but They’re Not Two of a Kind. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe